Chapter 9:
Thumping and pounding from the front door jolted the group back to the problem at hand. Tripper looked out the hole again.
"Can we take them?" Marks asked.
"No." Tripper answered, "There's too many."
"Is there another way out of here?" Arynn questioned.
Marks looked around the small enclosure. Towards the back of the room was the piled up sandbags and a few extra light bulbs. The room reminded him of the military fallout areas back on the Hawaiian island of Niihau—old and neglected. He was amazed that everything in the room still worked. It looked like no one had set foot in the bungalow since probably well before the explosion. But there was something in the far corners of the room that caught his attention. It couldn't have been an object just reflecting light. It had to be light coming from outside. He quickly followed the source.
Arynn saw through the holes in the door that the amount of murmuring children had multiplied. She wondered how long had they stayed down here and how did they manage to keep alive without living human flesh. How could Umbrella use children as guinea pigs? What were they trying to accomplish? This was nowhere near the super soldier experiments that she read numerous documents on. It didn't make sense.
There was a gunshot and some pounding coming from the back. Arynn looked up at Tripper. Immediately they headed for the commotion. Hernandez looked up from his corner and watched the soldier and civil head towards the back. He rose up, squinted his eyes shut then looked over at Patterson's lifeless body. He didn't want to leave her but he had to continue on. That was the point of his job, continue on. There was still a mission that had to be completed. He stepped over to where she laid. He knelt down and watched her dilated pupils look over to one of the boarded up walls ahead. He reached down, closed her eyes, and slowly nabbed the dog tag around her neck. Lifting the chain over her head and past her ponytail, he put it in his chest pocket. Turning back to where Tripper and Arynn had disappeared he cocked his gun and proceeded into the darkness. Behind him he heard more pounding of the children against the door. He ignored the sound. But the soft noise of something stirring made him turn around. Past the sandbags and old gas lanterns, Tripper turned on his belt light. He and Arynn followed the illumination cautiously.
"Marks." Tripper called out in a half-yell. There was no answer.
They continued on. To their amazement, the room went back even further. Maybe there was a way out after all. The further they went to the back, the quieter is got and the idea of Marks moving was unlikely.
"What about Hernandez?" Arynn whispered.
"We can't help him. It's up to him, if he wants to live…" Tripper replied.
Something kept Hernandez from catching up. He watched as Patterson's body convulsed erratically. He started to see small objects move around in the puddle of blood next to her head. What were they? They looked like smaller versions of tadpoles; but tadpols in blood? It had to be the virus. In all of his days as a military operative, never had he seen a virus like this. Even with the Umbrella outbreak and the mass mutations documented, what he was seeing as far beyond the recorded data. "Gene?" he whispered as his hand began to shake. He backed a way into the darkness, watching the body continue to convulse. The pounding on the door was louder and he could see that the children were now ripping holes through the wood. At any time, they could burst right through. The tall soldier quickly turned away and hurried after the rest of the group.
